FCC’s net neutrality proposal is the right one

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a plan to impose stricter regulations on broadband providers, thereby preserving the principle of “net neutrality.”

Net neutrality is the idea that no Internet service provider can give preference to one website over another by manipulating its speed. For years, getting a federal legal framework for net neutrality has been a top priority for Silicon Valley.

The reason why it’s been the subject of such a long Washington fight is that service providers such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T have deep pockets, plenty of political influence, and a dug-in belief that net neutrality will cost them profits. (They could earn money by asking high-traffic websites, like Netflix, to pay more for faster speeds.)

FCC Chair Tom Wheeler’s proposal would reclassify the Internet as a telecommunications service, making it illegal for service providers to favor some sites over others. In other words, the Internet would be considered a utility — like the telephone network — and the rules would be applicable whether or not consumers are accessing the Internet via a desktop, a mobile phone, or a tablet device.

Consumers are cheering the deal, and rightfully so. Any price increases forced onto popular websites via the service providers could — and probably would — have been passed onto consumers.

Consumers also have an interest in keeping Internet access as democratic as possible. Giants like Google can pay extra for faster traffic, but even Google started out as a small website. Consumers want the Internet to remain a place for discovery, and that wouldn’t be possible with a system of tiered access.

Wheeler’s plan doesn’t mean that the fight over net neutrality is over, though: in many ways, it’s just beginning.

AT&T has announced that it will pursue a legal challenge if the FCC votes to adopt Wheeler’s plan at the end of February.

That sort of legal challenge would likely take years — appeals to the Washington, D.C. Circuit of Appeals take at least a year and a half. The telecom giants may expect that the prospect of a drawn-out legal battle, along with the possibility of a Republican president after 2016, will force Wheeler to back down.

He can’t, he shouldn’t, and he doesn’t have to.

Wheeler has said that he intends to write neutrality rules that can survive a legal challenge. We have no doubt that the FCC will have another powerful interest group on its side: Silicon Valley’s technology firms, who consider net neutrality a matter of their long-term survival.

What’s more difficult to predict is how net neutrality will affect consumer access to fast speeds in the long term. The providers have long threatened to limit investment in broadband and wireless access if they didn’t get way regarding net neutrality, and certainly they have less of a financial incentive if they can’t charge higher rates to big users. Once the legal challenges are over, the FCC will have to keep as vigilant of an eye on the nation’s Internet infrastructure as on the service providers’ rates.

But that’s a small price to pay for a principle that will ensure the continued existence of the Internet on which we’ve all come to depend.